The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has praised Londoners for their help in connecting more rough sleepers with services in the capital than ever before, and for their generosity in donating almost £200,000 towards his ‘No one needs to sleep rough in London’ campaign.

The campaign, which began in December 2017, brought a coalition of 18 homelessness charities together through a single donation point. The money raised will be divided equally between the charities, meaning each one will benefit from more than £10,000 towards vital services.

The Mayor’s campaign also encouraged Londoners to let homelessness services know about rough sleepers they are concerned about through a simple app, ‘StreetLink’. Since the start of the campaign, Londoners have made 8,516 referrals through StreetLink – the highest level on record, up almost 45 per cent from 5,892 referrals over the equivalent period last year.

At the launch of the campaign last winter, Sadiq changed City Hall policy to enable cold-weather shelters to be opened more often. Under the previous Mayor’s policy, shelters only opened when three consecutive nights of sub-zero temperatures were forecast. Sadiq did not believe this policy went far enough to help those sleeping rough in the capital, and as a result of his new policy, cold-weather shelters are open every night temperatures fall below zero. This meant that between December and March they were open for 38 nights, compared to the 31 nights they would have been open in that same period under the previous Mayor’s policy.

Sadiq also worked with all 33 London boroughs, including the City of London, to help them change their local policies and operate in the same way. The work of boroughs, voluntary and faith-based organisations, and City Hall means that almost 1,000 spaces were available across the capital to those who needed them on each of the nights when temperatures fell below zero.